Today, it is common for users to have a multitude of computing devices that they use on a regular basis, and even simultaneously. For example, users may have PC desktops, laptops, smart phones, and tablet computers. Despite the burgeoning use of touchscreen technology in computing devices, many users still prefer to use a physical keyboard for data entry into their computing devices. For some, virtual keyboards that are provided on many computing devices can be inconvenient or difficult to use. For example, the virtual keyboard on a smart phone may be too small for entering significant amounts of text via the virtual keyboard. Similarly, some users may prefer to use other types of input devices, such as a wireless mouse or touchpad, to interact with and navigate the display screen of computing devices.
In addition, users often interface with more than one of these computing devices at a time. For example, a user may be using a laptop computer for business purposes and a tablet computer for entertainment purposes. It would be cumbersome to carry a separate keyboard for each computing device and physically move from one keyboard connected to one computing device to second keyboard connected to a second computing device in order to enter data into multiple computing devices. Some alternatives allow reusing a single keyboard for data entry to multiple computing devices. However, these solutions are not without their drawbacks.
Wired keyboards that physically connect to computing devices may require unplugging the keyboard from one computing device and plugging the keyboard into another computing device to reuse the keyboard across multiple computing devices. Each time the user wants to change the computing device that the user wants to send data to, the wire must be unplugged from a first computing device and then plugged into a second computing device. Plugging multiple computing devices into a switchbox for directing keyboard input into the desired computing device may require carrying a switchbox along with the keyboard and multiple cables, and may require connecting mobile devices to the switchbox before using the keyboard.
Wireless keyboards may be used to connect to a computing device without having to plug in physical cables. This can be especially useful for a user using a smart phone or a tablet device that prefers to use a physical keyboard for text entry because the virtual keyboards offered natively with such devices may be inconvenient to use.
Like wired keyboards, while wireless keyboards may be convenient for pairing with and connecting to one computing device at a time, switching connections between multiple computing devices can present their own share of difficulties. For example, each time the user may want the connection switched between computing devices, the discovery and pairing process has to be performed. If the user often switches between computing devices, this can become a cumbersome experience.
Based on the foregoing, there is a need in the art for improved methods and systems to establish pairings between an input device and computing (or host) devices.